So far, my biggest hurdle in writing a novel has been the first few pages. 

There is an insane amount of pressure to make the first pages of your manuscript mind-blowing, and more than a few "guidelines" have been provided by literary agents and publishers alike. The problem is, these guidelines aren't exactly a recipe for a brilliant book so much as they are ways to cut back on the number of pages a member of the publishing industry has to read before he feels justified in shooting the manuscript down. 

Here are some classic rules for the first ten pages of a novel that I have come across in my research:

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